Tag Archives: tax credit

A Biodiesel Magazine article reports about legislators in Pennsylvania trying to pass an amendment, SB 901, which seeks to impose a new fuel tax on businesses that sell biodiesel fuel by amending the state’s Biofuel Development and In-State Production Incentive Act of 2008.

Ironically, the geniuses in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives are intending to use the fees to support the state Department of Agriculture’s enforcement of the on-road B2 mandate that took effect in May. The amended legislation establishes a total of four of these registration fees:

– $5,000 for each biodiesel manufacturing facility within the state
– $5,000 for each location within the state where biodiesel is blended
– $100 for a person, other than a person that operates at a biodiesel production or blending facility, that sells, offers sale or otherwise transfers biodiesel or a biodiesel blend within the state, whether or not the that person operates a location within Pennsylvania where such activities are conducted
– $100 for each location, in excess of one, within Pennsylvania where a registered person sells, offers for sale or otherwise transfers title of biodiesel or a biodiesel blend.

Stupid is as stupid does, to quote Forrest Gump. One has to look no further than Germany to see where Merkel imposed a tax on biodiesel that has all but killed biodiesel in that country.

The biodiesel economy, and indeed the entire biofuels economy, is in a weakened state because of our lack of leadership on the federal level to renew the biofuels tax credits that they let expire. Add stupid legislation like this, and we can almost guarantee that not only will nobody be able to produce biodiesel, nobody will want to sell it either.

Oil industry lobbyists are decrying a proposed new tax on the industry to pay for the cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico disaster—while at the same time their clients reap huge subsidies from the federal government.

An investigation by The New York Times led to the conclusion that the oil industry is “among the most heavily subsidized businesses, with tax breaks available at virtually every stage of the exploration and extraction process.”

For instance, BP was able to write off 70% of the cost of leasing the Deepwater Horizon oil platform from owner Transocean.

A report by the Congressional Budget Office from 2005 showed the industry pays about 9% tax on oil field leases and drilling equipment—“significantly lower than the overall rate of 25% for businesses in general and lower than virtually any other industry, wrote The New York Times.